ObjectiveTo assess the associations between dietary cognitive restraint, disinhibited eating, and how taste and health perceptions relate to food preference; and further, whether cognitive restraint and disinhibited eating are associated with food preference decision reaction time.MethodsFive hundred and seventeen adults participated in the study. Dietary cognitive restraint and disinhibited eating were assessed using the shortened Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R18). Participants also completed a dietary decision-making task to examine their food-related decisions. Participants were presented with 50 food items and asked to rate them for health and for taste. Participants were then presented with a reference food item and comparison items one at a time and asked to indicate which of the two foods they would prefer to eat.ResultsParticipants with higher levels of cognitive restraint were more sensitive to health perceptions whereas those with higher levels of disinhibited eating were more sensitive to taste perceptions when indicating food preference. Reaction time analysis corroborated these results. Being classified as high for cognitive restraint was associated with faster reaction times if the preferred food was rated as healthier than the referent food. Conversely, being classified as high for disinhibited eating was associated with faster reaction times if the preferred food was rated as tastier than the referent food.ConclusionThe dietary decision-making task appears to capture distinct aspects of dietary restraint and disinhibition and may be useful in future studies to measure and/or alter levels of dietary restraint and disinhibition.

Aims: There is evidence that both aging and increased adiposity may impact creatine levels in the brain, and brain creatine levels are important for cognition. The aim of this study was to assess correlation between dietary creatine intake and cognition in in elderly women with overweight. Methods: Twenty seven overweight women over 60 years of age who were part of a larger study participated in an Eriksen Flanker Task (EFT) to asssess cognitive performance. Additionally, diet was assessed over 5 days via daily diary nutritional recalls and the estimate of the daily amount of creatine was calculated. Results: In the EFT when incongruente stimulus were presented there was a significant diferences between those with low and high intake of creatine (−35.3 ± 5.84; p < 0.001). Similarly, reaction time to answer incongruent stimulus (r = −0.383; p = 0.004) and the percent of correct answers (r = 0.743; p < 0.001) showed weak to strong correlations with self-reported daily creatine intake. Conclusions: In conclusion, our results suggest that in elderly women with overweight that dietary intake of creatine may influence cognitive ability. Clinical Implications: Our findings support the idea that intake of dietary creatine may be an important factor for cognition in older adults.

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While different crowdsourcing platforms promote remote data collection, experiments in the immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) research community are predominantly performed in person. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has forced researchers in different disciplines, including iVR, to seriously consider remote studies. In this paper, we present a remote study using the Immersive Virtual Alimentation and Nutrition (IVAN) application, designed to educate users about food-energy density and portion size control. We report on the results of a remote experiment with 45 users using the IVAN app. In IVAN, users actively construct knowledge about energy density by manipulating virtual food items, and explore the concept of portion size control through hypothesis testing and assembling virtual meals in iVR. To explore the feasibility of conducting remote iVR studies using an interactive health-related application for nutrition education, two conditions were devised (interactive vs. passive). The results demonstrate the feasibility of conducting remote iVR studies using health-related applications. Furthermore, the results also indicate that regardless of level of interactivity learners significantly improved their knowledge about portion size control after using the IVAN (p &lt; 0.0001). Adding interactivity, however, suggests that the perceived learning experience of users could be partially affected. Learners reported significantly higher scores for immediacy of control in the interactive condition compared to those in the passive condition (p &lt; 0.05). This study demonstrates the feasibility of conducting an unsupervised remote iVR experiment using a complex and interactive health-related iVR app.

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